Interview with Andrea Kac at Tuesday 15th of April 2014: DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?AK : The main idea was to develop and design a floor level seat that could adapt to every situation: woking, watching tv, resting..

DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?AK : My goal was to achieve a folding seat made entirely out of fabric, without any reinforcements. I wanted to develop a simple technology that out of wool felt the backrest could have enough strength to support a person and enough flexibility to adapt to that person's different resting positions.

DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?AK : I am already working on developing an entire FRACTAL COLLECTION with different seats, tables and huge rugs that fold as well.

DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?AK : I have been working on this design for a year now.

DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?AK : I pursuit an inspiration though the project was designed during my postgraduate studies.

DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?AK : I would like to see it come alive in real production, so I would be willing to sell production rights.

DI: What made you design this particular type of work?AK : One of my main concerns regarding design is challenging how we live and how to make all furniture around us adapt better to us and not us to them. I am also focused on designing furniture for small spaces which is a global concern now.

DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?AK : I did a big design research in order to discover which technologies regarding flexible backrests were available and which similar projects were already designed in order to create a NEW textile backrest.

DI: Who is the target customer for his design?AK : People who enjoy different and unique products made of noble and ecological materials. Also those who enjoy or need of their furniture to offer more flexible spaces and configurations.

DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?AK : The technology applied to the nerving that allows the felt to become strong and resistant when supporting a persons weight in a way that is comfortable, and at the same time flexible to allow it to fold on many times.

DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?AK : The name came from the term FRACTAL SURFACE, which is a surface created by an algorithm that allows polygons to join together in a fractal behavior, creating very similar landscape terrains. This algorithm is used mainly for making computer modeled landscapes look more convincing and real.

DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?AK : I did many prototypes in different materials: cardboard, fabric, automotive felt, wool felt. I did not use many computer programs as the process of design for this product was made experimenting with shapes, materials and how each one reacted to folding.

DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?AK : Yes, I did many research in the tapestry and shoe making techniques as to include these to the production and prototyping process.

DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?AK : I believe the fact that there is a physical material technology is important. I wanted to focus on simple processes and not solve the problem using high tech reinforcements.

DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?AK : Achieving the backrest shape and nerving so it could fold and unfold to hold people of different sizes and to support each one in as many positions as possible.

Design Interviews is a resource on Design, Arts & Architecture featuring pre-made interviews with professional designers, artists and architects. DI: Design Interviews is created in order to share the professional lives of designers, architects and artists with design enthusiasts and other designers in order to provide tips for upcoming designers, artists and architects to advance their design knowledge and skills and to give our readers a feel for how designers come up with their designs. DI: Design Interviews was created by DesignPRWire and A' Design Award to promote the winner designers, and to share their insights with the rest of the world.